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Family search for justice after unborn baby killed in accident

by McBlog2 • 30 March 2016 • Comments Off on Family search for justice after unborn baby killed in accident

TV3 Story 29 March 2016Family First Comment: The inconvenient truth (and shocking lack of legal recognition and protection) of a child that exists but just hasn’t been born yet. Note how the media try to mitigate the real message by using the word ‘foetus’!“Charges relating to the death of a foetus can only be brought if the Crown decide there was intent to murder or injure. Not if it was a tragic but unintended accident. .. The family are not alone as there have been other similar cases in both New Zealand and Australia that had similar conclusions. The problem is giving a foetus legal status conflicts with abortion laws. Recognition of a personality would give foetus legal rights to sue and be sued. It would be recognition as an autonomous actor in the legal system. The potential impact of that is the foetus rights could conflict with the mother’s right as a person. To separate the two issues would require careful consideration and political will, but it appears there is not much of that at the moment.”

If your unborn child was killed in a car accident through no fault of your own, should the person who caused the accident be held accountable?

It sounds like a simple question, but it’s not.

It’s a question that has been tearing the Grover family apart in their search for justice.

It has been five months since Tessa Grover’s baby was delivered a stillborn and all she has to remember him is a photo and casts of his hands and feet.

The police explained to Story that under current legislation, there is no provision to charge someone directly in relation to the death of an unborn infant because the baby in utero is not considered a legal person.

Charges relating to the death of a foetus can only be brought if the Crown decide there was intent to murder or injure. Not if it was a tragic but unintended accident.

Mr Grover says they were broken by the crash and broken by the justice system again.

The family are not alone as there have been other similar cases in both New Zealand and Australia that had similar conclusions. The problem is giving a foetus legal status conflicts with abortion laws.

Recognition of a personality would give foetus legal rights to sue and be sued. It would be recognition as an autonomous actor in the legal system. The potential impact of that is the foetus rights could conflict with the mother’s right as a person.

To separate the two issues would require careful consideration and political will, but it appears there is not much of that at the moment.

“Amending the law would be a significant and complex piece of work and is not currently on my work programme,” says Justice Minister Amy Adams.